Faces of history

Web posted Wednesday, November 1, 2000

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By Brandon Haddock
Staff Writer

Albert Einstein's name is indelible in the history of atomic warfare, a peculiar irony considering that the scientific genius devoted his life to peace.

The German-born physicist knew little of rapid and recent advancements in nuclear science when, during the summer of 1939, he was persuaded by fellow scientists to write to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, in order to make the president aware of the potentially destructive power of the atom - and its implications during a time of war and strife.

Albert Einstein FILE

The letter itself was written by a committee of Einstein's peers; the renowned physicist did little more than choose between several drafts of the letter and sign his name. It took more than two months for Mr. Roosevelt to receive the document, and even then, the president did little immediately.

Despite this, the letter remains a signpost in the history of nuclear energy and weaponry, a haunting indication of what humanity can accomplish - and wreak - when it harnesses nature's power for its own purposes.

``In the course of the last four months it has been made probable ... that it may become possible to set up a nuclear chain reaction in a large mass of uranium, by which vast amounts of power and large quantities of new radium-like elements would be generated,'' Mr. Einstein wrote.

``This new phenomena would also lead to the construction of bombs, and it is conceivable - though much less certain - that extremely powerful bombs of a new type may thus be constructed.''

Mr. Einstein was moved to become involved after learning of his native country's own rapidly developing understanding of atomic science. The Germans controlled vast uranium mines in Czechoslovakia, and had managed to split the uranium atom.

If the destructive power of the atom could be loosed, Mr. Einstein believed, Nazi Germany could not be allowed to possess such knowledge and ability alone.

Mr. Einstein himself suffered at the hands of the Nazi regime. His theories ridiculed and his books burned, Mr. Einstein was forced from his homeland in 1933 because of his pacifist beliefs and his Jewish faith.

After his first letter, the physicist wrote to Mr. Roosevelt thrice more, although only one note reached the president before his death in 1945. But by the late 1940s, Mr. Einstein had spoken out against the nuclear-arms race. Five months before his death in 1954, Mr. Einstein called his first letter to Mr. Roosevelt the ``one great mistake in his life.''

``The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking, and thus we drift toward unparalleled catastrophes,'' he once said.

Reach Brandon Haddock at (706) 823-3409.

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